In Varanasi

19/2/12

   Rode up to Askot for a bit of fun and the road was terrible, so not so much fun, just great views with plenty of time to see them. Decided to do the loop as the road was so bad and headed to Thal via Didihat. The road between Didihat and Thal was in a very good state and lots of fun, dropped over 1,000m in 17km so lots of twisty nice roads, lucky the Karizma has disc front brakes would hate to have done it on an Enfield with drum.

 Land slides are a real possibility on this road.

mmm Look at that road, oh and there is a view too.

 The Askot cricket pitch was small, i wonder how they score 4's or 6's. 4's if you hit a building, 6 if you have to lower someone down the cliff by rope to get the ball lol.

 

   The way back to Pithoragarh from Thal started out average but the riding good anway. Had the usual problems getting directions in Thal, if I asked for Pithoragarh they pointed to the petrol station but I eventually found the way, mainly as there is only 3 real roads in town and I had taken 2 of them lol.

20/2/12

   Rode to Jhulaghat to see Nepal, well it's weeks before I will be there, well less than 2 weeks lol. Very nice ride I stopped about half way there, it's about 40km, and had a great view over the river of Nepal. Once I got down a bit further I discovered the last 20km is basically a massive back and forward along the slope below where I was parked. Nice village Jhulaghat but the locals where a bit confused by my presence as foreign passport holders are not allowed across the bridge to Nepal and every one seemed sure I had come there to go to Nepal. I had actually gone there for breakfast, but unfortunately no food places had a view of the river only the market.

NEPAL, just down a few hundred meters and over the river.

Jhulaghat 

21/2/12

   Started heading for Varanasi with absolutely no idea how far I would make it. The road was in a good enough shape, and the views great.

 A temple in the middle of the river, well sort of river.

Creating and connecting now bro, but still no email/comment for your actual brother mmm.

I have found out that BRO is Border Roads Organisation, but i can still hope my bro is creating, connecting, and at my service lol

Finally some where to beat those bloody kids, oh belt sorry.

 I've been seeing these piles of poo paddies in various forms since late in Raj, this was first time i have seen all the different stages of poo building from start to finish.

I've said to a few people resently that i had done 10,000km so far in India, well now I have.

 I ended up stopping in Shahjahanpur, and no I do not know how to pronounce that even though I have heard Indians say it lol. It's an industrial town, not much more I can say about it.

22/2/12

   Started out early still unsure if I would make it to Varanasi, the road was not a dual carriage way so could only average about 50kph for most of the way. When I got to Sultanpur I was thinking about getting a hotel, unfortunately I didn't see any so, even though it meant arriving in Varanasi in the dark I went for it. Still had almost 50km to go when it got dark, and town was very busy when I arrived. Then I got to the Ghats area and people where everywhere. I final found where the Hotel I had called about 3 hours earlier was, after a old man was put on my bike by a tuk tuk driver to show me the way. It was down all these very small alleys and even though the hotel guy had said they had parking for motorbike, what he meant was up some stairs and by a wall down an alley blocking most of it. The last bit was hell.

23/2/12 to 26/2/12

   Got woken early by someone going to the toilet, share one outside my room, so decided to go and watch the sunrise as it was 530am. I managed to get a soft drink from one of the workers and while I was watching the view a big ish male monkey come up behind me and laid the bottle down quietly on the table and started drink it. He got real pissy at me when I grabbed it back, I even had to get the stick which is when he ran away, “cheeky little monkey”.

 Taken well monkey was stealing my drink.

   Decided to move to a different place and found one next to a road with burning Ghat view and security parking, INR10 per day. And the double bed, two single side by side, where even the same height unlike the last place.

   I finally found the Hero work shop for a full service, as I'm not sure if Hero is in Nepal I want everything right before I go over the border, unfortunately they couldn't fit me in today so have to wait till Monday, which doesn't really matter as I was looking at trying to cross the border Friday or Saturday.

   Other than watching people get burned, monkeys playing, kids playing, boats floating, touts annoying, etc things are quite nice here in Varanasi. 

 All is well here i look forward to seeing some in Nepal soon

   Enjoy your life